How do I get a smart meter when I have a 3 phase supply?

The process is unchanged currently, @phproxy, but as @Transparent, mentioned it is something we’re hoping to be able to do soon. 

Thanks! 

I should perhaps point out that having 3-phase domestic supplies is a very different scenario than industry.

Industrial use of 3-phase power is pretty well balanced. Either it’s actually driving 3-phase machinery, or else the building will have been wired so as to spread the load across the phases.

In a domestic situation there is likely to be significant imbalance. Most houses will have only one or two power-rings, a separate feed for an electric cooker, another one for a shower etc. Even if these are divided across the phases, the usage on one phase will have no correlation to the other two.

In households with two EVs, the chargers themselves will most likely each be single-phase.

Grid-connected generation will also be connected to a single phase. If both EVs have V2G chargers, and a Solar PV array is connected to the third phase, these will still be exporting at different times.

This results in a much more complex set of data to be retrieved from a 3-phase Smart Meter.

Two phases might be in demand, whilst the third is exporting back to the grid. The Billing system must be able to correctly account for that.

As for the customers… how would you feel if you’re generating solar electricity on one phase, but still being billed full rate for charging an EV on a different phase?

There’s a lot to discuss here.

I do have some solutions to propose, but let’s see what others think first.

There’s a detailed Q&A topic on SMETS2 smart meter installs with 3 phase supplies, check it out here

OK - I’m new here so please be gentle with me - especially if I am posting in the wrong place.

We have a three phase supply to our house (been in a year now) but only two of the phases are connected. We have three old-style meters as one of the phases also has a low tariff meter for a few storage heaters (which we don’t use). We’re going to install  12 kW or so of solar panels and we’d like the ability to export power.

So should we wait for three phase meters to be available? Or install two smart meters (one on each of the working phase)s? Going down to one phase would limit what we could export. Or is there an even cleverer option?

Thanks for any advice.

K

Hi @Uncle K thanks for posting and a big ol welcome to the community!

This looks like the right place to ask your question, nice work finding the same topic of the same question!

Now then, to your answer. The info above outlines how to get your 3-phase supply downgraded to allow a smart install. I’m not sure of your set up (although to be fair, it doesn’t take a lot before I become unsure of electrical supply technicals), so let’s wait to hear from some of our better informed volunteers. 

One thing to note: you don’t NEED a smart meter to export. I know that for customer’s of a ‘feed in tariff’, without a smart meter, they can get paid for half of their generation meter recorded usage, as if it was exported. For some, that works out as a better deal then measuring the export exactly (which is possible with a smart meter). 

However, smart meters are very much recommended. So let’s see what we hear from the likes of @Transparent. Please be advised, Unckle K, we’re all busy folks leaving busy lives, so a reply from other volunteer might not be instant. :) 

Keen to hear from you about this solar fitting though - fancy posting a topic about this when they go in. @Uncle K ?

Hi @Uncle K - you are definitely in the right place! Welcome to the Forum.

Looking at your overall desire to install 12kW of PV Solar Panel, you must retain all three phases to your property. The inverters used for grid connection will be certified to G98, which permits export of no more than 16A per phase (~4kW).

I anticipate OVO having 3-phase Smart meters available sometime before Christmas. There are three aspects to this

• the availability of the physical meter. (No problem - already done)
• the training of OVO staff, both for installation and for diagnostics in-house. Constrained somewhat by Covid-19, but achievable.
• ensuring compatibility with the in-house Billing System

This last one is totally within OVO’s control because they have their own programming team. Have a look at the “prompt” posted just this morning to one of the Moderators who is looking into this for us.

Hold fire on the matter of Storage Radiators. If OVO are prepared to offer a genuine Time Of Use tariff, then these could prove to be useful to take excess renewable generation at very low cost.

We are discussing this scenario on another Topic about TOU tariffs.

Please complete your Forum Profile page. Whereabouts you are in the UK will affect some of our suggestions. Thanks

Big thanks for the replies.
We're in West Sussex and will be happy to share how we get on with solar panels.
We're going for GSHP and UFH so we are very keen to ditch the storage heaters (which are only in a very small bit of the house anyway) but thanks for the thought - I guess never say never.
Cheers
K

UFH eh?!

So have you noticed that I’m writing an introductory series on UFH here on the Forum?

If you’re going to combine GSHP and UFH, I presume you’ll have a thermal store. An immersion heater in that would be another way to take electricity at very low rates if you migrate to a Time Of Use tariff.

I wish I’d bought my thermal store with two positions for immersion-heaters. The one position it has is presently used with a 30v immersion, acting as a dump-load for a small wind-turbine. So I’ll have a tricky decision to make if TOU tariffs become available.

Even so, don’t ditch the bricks from the storage radiators. I have a load here ready to install as a heat-dump below the central path in a greenhouse

Hi @Uncle K I’ve just confirmed our latest position with regards to 3 phase supplies and smart meters, which I posted in this topic:

I can confirm that there’s still no time frame which we can provide, for when we’re manufacturing and installing smart meters for 3 phase supplies. 

We will be able to take on 3 phase supplies with other S2 model smart meters, but “the polyphase project in OVO is still in the feasibility stages at the moment….. If OVO have to do some internal development to send polyphase specific requests to the meters then we won't be able to fully support these meters from other suppliers until that work is done, but we would still be able to communicate with them to get readings’. 

@Transparent I know of lots of customers with solar and single phase supplies (we have topics on SMETS1 export queries) with smart meters. Can you elaborate on why it’s essential to keep this 3 phase set up when Uncle K gets his solar fitted? 

Sure @Tim_OVO - He wants 12kW of solar.

You can only attach 4kW (max) to a single-phase.

3 x 4Kw = 12kW